Shift

Chapter Five

It was kind of . . . anti-climactic. Two hits. Literally. Jace hit the wolf in the jaw, and he dropped hitting his head on the ground. Knock out.

I started clapping. I wasn't really sure what the protocol was here. But the adrenaline and fear of what that big bulky brute might do to Jace had me nervous and then when Jace dropped him, it just came exploding out like I was at an actual MMA fight.

Jace swung his head to me and winked.

Logan looked down at me and smirked. "You can stop clapping. And you should go inside. Jace might have to kill him."

He said it so casually—he was still smirking for God's sake—I nearly missed the deadly details of his statement. "Kill him?" I dropped my hands. "No. You threaten him and tell him never to come back. We don't need to be killing people."

"He's not people. He's a werewolf. That would have done very, very bad things to you if he'd won." Logan looked over my head at Christian. "Take her inside." Christian nodded and grabbed my hand, tugging me along.

I pulled out of his grip and swung back to Logan. "What are you going to do when more come? Have a bunch of dead bodies buried all over your territory?"

He arched his scarred eyebrow.

Jonathan snorted. "There already are."

"Inside," Logan ordered again, speaking over my head to Christian.

Christian grabbed my hand again, but I twisted out of it. I stepped toward Logan, but Christian grabbed me around the waist and hauled me up into his arms fireman style and carted me inside. Holy shit. He was strong for a human. I suppose to some degree werewolf blood did run through his veins.

He plopped me down on the couch and handed me a gaming controller. "Forget about werewolf politics, Avery. Let's play." Turning on the TV, he blasted the volume to near deafening levels.

I nodded, realizing I was outnumbered, but knowing what they were out there doing made my stomach clench. I understood it, and I didn't. It wasn't like there was some police we could call to have the werewolf and his buddies arrested. What if he came back? What if he managed to get me when the pack wasn't around? A part of me was preening, proud of Jace. And the other part of me was totally disgusted that I was even okay with any part of that previous statement.

I ran my car into a wall and got all spun around. Christian shook his head and tapped my controller. I was usually much better at this game.

The door opened. Logan and Jonathan strolled back inside. Logan came over to me, scooping me up off the couch and sitting back down with me in his lap. Jonathan sat in his recliner. I wanted to ask if the werewolf was dead. If all the werewolves that had arrived in the van were dead and if the rest of the pack were currently out digging shallow graves. But I didn't.

Logan grabbed the TV remote and turned down the volume. "I let them go with a warning." He worked his jaw and glanced at Jonathan. "I don't think I should have though."

Jonathan shrugged. "They may warn others to steer clear."

"Let's hope." The two shared a look, I couldn't decipher, but it didn't look good. Jonathan nodded. "This is only the beginning."

"I'm going to call some of my pack here." Logan leaned to the side and slid his phone out of his pocket. "We need to set up perimeter checks twenty-four seven. No one gets that close to the den again."

"Agreed."

I raised my eyebrows. I'd never seen those two agree on anything. "Where is the rest of the pack? Running checks?"